It's not a good time for tech:
- 3rd largest NASDAQ downturn in 20yrs
- Growing companies down 75% in 6mo<p>And now… 30k people laid off since March.<p>Including from companies like Tesla, Superhuman, Loom, Bolt, Clickup, Netflix, and Canva.<p>There's a lot of stuff written on what founders/execs should do.<p>But nothing for the manager caught in the middle.<p>I thought I'd write a quick take for us to discuss<p>---<p>First... the doom and gloom your reading is <i>probably</i> true.<p>Your company isn't immune from this -- and it certainly can't survive without your help.<p>So Tech Managers here's 3 things you need to do:<p>---<p>1. What to do today: Change your mindset<p>- You’re not a bottle floating in an ocean at the whim of the wind. Be a buoy
- It's extra important to be a diligent leader today.
- Don't create fear or spread rumors. But do due-diligence on your function to get ahead of things.<p>---<p>2. What to do this week: Do an audit
A) Goals: How are you tracking? What's best case, most likely, and worst case? Whatever it is, build a plan to get back on track starting now.
B) Team: It might be time to kick some of the nice-to-have projects down the road 6 months so you can stay hyper-focused on your goals. Make sure your team knows why they’re essential to the operations of the business - it will help focus.
C) Expenses: Cut what you don’t need. In reality, you should consistently be doing anyway. But take this time to re-set.<p>And tally the total… you’ll need it later.<p>---<p>3. What to do this quarter: Take action<p>Don’t get paralyzed by analysis.<p>A small action now is just as meaningful as a large action much later.<p>---<p>There's so much more that you could/should be doing including...
Discussions to have with your team
Get serious about managing up
Use your network for any hires
Questions to ask your boss
Make diamonds<p>There's actually so much of this other stuff I wrote an article to cover it (https://hypercontext.com/blog/modern-manager-community/how-managers-should-prepare-for-layoffs)<p>---<p>What'd we miss?